[Pheochromocytoma and cardiac insufficiency]

[Immature ovarian tumour and dilated myocardiopathy]

Asymptomatic 2 month-old infant referred for evaluation of a hard abdominal mass on the left side. The ultrasound examination showed a solid-cystic tumour above the left kidney. The alpha-fetoprotein level was 2000ng/ml. The meta-iodobenzylguanidine (123-I-MIBG) showed no tumour uptake. At 48h, she showed signs of hypovolemic shock. The chest X-ray showed cardiomegaly with a cardiothoracic ratio of 0.7 and pulmonary congestion. The echocardiogram showed a dilated left ventricle with ejection fraction 35-40%. Anaemia, hypertension, hypervolemia and hyper-secretion of catecholamines were ruled out. The virology and metabolic screens were normal. The highly vascularised retroperitoneal tumour was resected without incident and confirmed the diagnosis of an immature Norris grade 2 teratoma grade. At 3 months the outcome was satisfactory. Teratomas are rare tumours in childhood that generally have a benign course. Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) secondary to, chromaffin cell tumours (phaeochromocytoma, neuroblastoma, ganglioneuroblastoma), leukaemia infiltrates, and treatment with anthracyclines have been described, but there is no case reported in the literature regarding a teratoma with dilated cardiomyopathy. Various cytokines, such as INF-α, IL-1, IL-6 may be secreted by tumour, promoting fibroblast activity in the heart and inducing apoptosis and myocardial fibrosis. Thus, in the case presented resection of the tumour mass responsible for this production, enables the heart to return to normal.

Measurement of fractional flow reserve to assess moderately severe coronary lesions: correlation with dobutamine stress echocardiography

BACKGROUND

New techniques to evaluate coronary artery disease, such as calculation of myocardial fractional flow reserve (FFR) with a guidewire and pressure transducer, provide a functional assessment of coronary lesions. The present study was designed to determine the correlation between FFR and dobutamine stress echocardiography in patients with moderately severe coronary stenosis in order to judge the usefulness of FFR for commonly encountered clinical problems.

METHODS AND RESULTS

We studied 21 patients with 23 moderately severe coronary artery stenoses on angiography. The FFR was calculated and dobutamine stress echocardiography was performed to detect ischemia. Of the 16 stenoses with a negative FFR (> or = 0.75), dobutamine echocardiography also was negative. In the seven stenoses with a positive FFR (< 0.75), dobutamine echocardiography was positive in three. The efficacy of FFR in detecting ischemia that was confirmed with stress echocardiography was sensitivity 100%, specificity 80%, positive and negative predictive value 42.8%, and 100%, respectively, with a global predictive value 82.6%. A moderate degree of correlation was found between the two diagnostic tests (kappa [kappa] = 0.51).

CONCLUSIONS

FFR correlates moderately well with dobutamine stress echocardiography in the assessment of moderately severe lesions in patients for whom coronary arteriography is usually indicated. However, its high negative predictive value makes FFR a useful aid in reaching clinical decisions promptly in the hemodynamics laboratory.